From the nineteenth century to the twentieth century, war was the eternal theme, the British were mired in the Boer War, the Sino-Russian war was endless, the Chinese Empire and the United States were still preparing to strike at the declining Spain, and on the other side, another war broke out, which also attracted the attention of all countries in the world. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

In November Turkey declared war on the Cretans in response to an uprising in Crete, in the middle of the eastern Mediterranean, to free themselves from the Ottoman Empire and annex Greece to Greece.

In February, when a Greek force came to the aid of the insurgents, Britain, France, Russia, Germany, Italy, and Austria declared Crete autonomous under "European protection" and sent a landing force to occupy the island on April 5, prompting Turkey to declare war on Greece.

In the second year of Xinghua, the Ottoman Turkish Empire took advantage of the war between Russia and the Chinese Empire to launch a war in a vain attempt to regain the territory it had lost, but in the end it was defeated and suffered heavy losses.

From that war, all countries saw that this once great power had completely declined, but Germany took a fancy to Turkey and gave a helping hand, wanting to turn Turkey into an ally of Germany, and then Turkey did become an ally of Germany, and Germany began to give Turkey more help, at least to help Turkey build a strong army.

As a result, the Turkish army, trained by German instructors, greatly outnumbered the Greek army in terms of strength and weapons, and was prepared for war, with the Turks having 94,000 infantry, 1,660 cavalry, and 234 artillery pieces in Thessaly and Epirus, while the Greeks had only 55,000 infantry, 970 cavalry, and 144 artillery pieces.

The Turkish battle plan was to attack Thessaly with the main force and defend Epirus with two divisions.

The Greek command planned to defend Thessaly with two divisions in the first phase and launch an offensive on Epirus in order to liberate the area, while also hoping that victory in the first battle would provoke an anti-Turkish uprising.

However, the Greek army was defeated in the border battle at Thessaly, and on April 13 abandoned the city of Larissa and withdrew to the city of Trikala, Greece was not prepared for war, the mediocre command of the Greek army led by Crown Prince Constantine, the incompetence of the troops, and the superiority of the Turkish army in terms of strength and technical equipment, all contributed to the defeat of the Greek army in the cities of Fasalú and Veillistinom in the Thessaly region, and in the vicinity of the cities of Pontepigatia, Alta and Prefoza in the Epilus region.

The war ended in Domokos on May 5, and an armistice was signed on May 7 after mediation by the great powers, and because the war lasted only 30 days, the war was also known as the Thirty Days War.

The scale of this Greco-Turkish war was still too small, and the warring parties were not too important in Europe, and although countries attached importance to it, they did not attach as much importance to it as the Boer War.

For the guerrilla warfare of the Boers, the British were really unbearable.

After the British occupied all the cities in the Transvaal and Orange regions, the British declared the annexation of the two regions, and the war ended.

Of course, the war did not end as the British thought, the remaining Brent army and Boer resistance began to be waged guerrilla warfare in this vast area, bringing all kinds of troubles to the British, the British army was busy encircling and suppressing the Boer guerrillas, but the Boer guerrillas were scattered all over the place, and as long as they had the opportunity, they would attack the British army, and the British army did not have a very good idea to solve the Boer guerrillas, the British army had been deeply mired in the quagmire of the Boer War, the number of British casualties increased rapidly, and military spending continued to increase.

From December last year to April this year, Boer guerrillas under the command of Botha and DeWitt fought deep into the British Cape colony, leaving the British army exhausted.

Beginning in April of this year, Boer guerrillas launched a number of sneak attacks on British forces in the Transvaal and Orange, and repeatedly succeeded, capturing large quantities of munitions, provisions, and artillery.

The British, unable to endure the attacks of the Boer guerrillas, finally decided to strike hard.

In order to end the war as soon as possible, Lord Kitchener adopted bunker tactics, scorched earth policy, and set up concentration camps to deal with the Boer guerrillas from March this year, which was indeed a more effective way to deal with guerrilla warfare.

In the areas where the Boer guerrillas were active, the British army erected barbed wire, divided the Transvaal and Orange into a number of appeasement areas, and carried out divisional sweeps, with an estimated total length of 6,000 kilometers of barbed wire, and a wooden blockhouse every 1 to 2 kilometers in the appeasement zone, and soldiers were stationed there, and all those who approached the range of the bunkers were shot and killed, and a total of more than 8,000 pillboxes were to be set up, and in these appeasement areas, whenever Boer farmers were found to help the guerrillas, the farms and houses within 10 miles of the surrounding area were burned down.

In addition, Lord Kitchener changed his previous leniency policy towards prisoners of war, and all surrendered and captured partisan members, as well as adult male citizens who had participated in guerrillas, were exiled to prisoner of war camps in distant India, Ceylon, and Bermuda, and in the Cape and Natal colonies, all British citizens of Dutch descent who responded to the call to "take up arms" were sentenced to death if captured.

In order to completely eliminate the basis of the guerrillas, Kitchener ordered Boer women, children and the elderly, as well as black servants, to be taken from the burned farms, transported in open-top wagons or ox carts, and imprisoned in concentration camps.

The South African concentration camp, which was set up last September as a refugee camp for the families of Boer soldiers whose homes had been burned down, was transformed this year by Lord Kitchener into a concentration camp for all Boer civilians.

At present, there are more than 30 concentration camps in South Africa, located on both sides of the railway lines in the Cape, the Transvaal, Orange and Natal, as well as in the suburbs of major cities such as Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Durban.

A strict and harsh rationing system was imposed in the camps, with three-quarters of a pound of cornmeal, rice, or potatoes per person per day, an ounce of coffee, two ounces of sugar, half an ounce of salt, one pound of meat per week (women and children with relatives in the guerrillas did not receive meat), and infants and children under the age of six received a quarter quart of milk per day. The situation was worse in the black concentration camps, but they could be assisted by black relatives and friends, and they could also be released after pledging allegiance to the British.

The camp was surrounded by barbed wire, and anyone who tried to escape was shot.

Although Lord Kitchener's tactics were effective against the Boer guerrillas, the concentration camps were extremely densely populated, with a shortage of tents, blankets, clothing, and medicine, plague, malnutrition, and mortality, which made the image of the British plummeting to the whole world.

The protracted Boer War, the exhaustion of both sides, and the increasingly fierce criticism and accusations against Britain by European countries, these two reasons made Britain consider whether it should stop the war, in fact, in February this year, Lord Kitchener had begun secret negotiations with Louis Botha, but the negotiations did not lead to anything, the war continued, and the suffering of the British army in South Africa continued.

The plight of the British army in South Africa was not only that the Chinese Empire was laughing, but that Germany, Austria-Hungary and other countries in opposition to Britain were sitting and watching a good show, while condemning Britain internationally, and even Britain's ally France, was secretly having fun.

No country wants to see Britain stand above its head all the time.